Every processor class we track, grouped by workload. Start from what you want to run, pick a chip card for the full spec sheet and the mini PCs built on it, or scan the table to compare.
Play modern games on a box smaller than a console: pick a Radeon 780M/890M or Arc B390 iGPU for 1080p, a Strix Halo for 1440p without a graphics card, or OCuLink when you want to dock a desktop GPU later.
Ryzen 7 8845HS / 7840HS Beast · Gorgon Point Ryzen AI 9 HX 470 · Intel Panther Lake Core Ultra X9 388H / X7 358H · Strix Halo Ryzen AI Max+ 395
Run private chatbots, coding assistants and image models at home. For LLMs, memory size and bandwidth matter far more than the NPU's TOPS figure — from 7B models on a Radeon 780M to 70B+ on a 128 GB Strix Halo.
Ryzen 7 8845HS / 7840HS Beast · Gorgon Point Ryzen AI 9 HX 470 · Intel Panther Lake Core Ultra X9 388H / X7 358H · Strix Halo Ryzen AI Max+ 395
Run Proxmox, Docker and dozens of self-hosted services 24/7 for a few watts. Idle power, RAM capacity, Intel NICs and reliable 24/7 thermals matter more than peak benchmark scores.
Intel N100 / N305 Micro Node · Core i3-N305 Quad-2.5G NAS · Ryzen 7 7735HS / 5800H Mini · Intel Panther Lake Core Ultra X9 388H / X7 358H
Stream and transcode a 4K library to every screen in the house. A modern media engine (Intel Quick Sync or AMD VCN) does the heavy lifting — the CPU barely matters, and low idle power keeps a 24/7 server cheap.
Intel N100 / N305 Micro Node · Core i3-N305 Quad-2.5G NAS · Intel Core Ultra 7 155H / Meteor Lake · Intel Panther Lake Core Ultra X9 388H / X7 358H
Build a quiet all-flash NAS for files, photos and backups. Count the drive slots and PCIe lanes, demand fast networking, and size the RAM for ZFS — CPU power is a secondary concern.
Core i3-N305 Quad-2.5G NAS · Intel N100 / N305 Micro Node · Strix Halo Ryzen AI Max+ 395
Replace your ISP router with OPNsense, pfSense or OpenWrt on a fanless box. Multiple Intel 2.5GbE ports and stable drivers matter most — even an N100 routes multi-gigabit with IDS and VPN.
Intel N100 / N305 Micro Node · Core i3-N305 Quad-2.5G NAS
A silent desktop for browsers, spreadsheets, video calls and development on multiple 4K screens. Prioritise display outputs, single-cable USB-C docking, 32 GB of RAM and quiet cooling over raw horsepower.
Intel N100 / N305 Micro Node · Ryzen 7 7735HS / 5800H Mini · Intel Core Ultra 7 155H / Meteor Lake · Intel Panther Lake Core Ultra X9 388H / X7 358H
| Graphics (iGPU) | Intel UHD (24 EU) |
| Memory Architecture | 1x DDR4/DDR5 SODIMM (Up to 32GB) |
| Storage Exp. | 1x M.2 NVMe + 1x 2.5" SATA |
| Idle Power | 5W – 8W |
| Est. Barebone Cost | $120 - $180 |
OPNsense Firewall, Pi-hole, Plex DirectPlay, lightweight Proxmox cluster nodes.
| Graphics (iGPU) | Radeon 680M (RDNA 2) |
| Memory Architecture | Dual-Channel DDR5 (Up to 64GB) |
| Storage Exp. | 2x M.2 2280 PCIe 4.0 NVMe |
| Idle Power | 10W – 14W |
| Est. Barebone Cost | $310 - $420 |
Heavy 4K multi-monitor productivity, software compilation, medium Docker stacks.
| Graphics (iGPU) | Radeon 780M (12 CUs RDNA 3) |
| Memory Architecture | Dual DDR5 5600MHz SODIMM |
| Storage Exp. | 2x PCIe 4.0 NVMe (Raid 0/1 support) |
| Idle Power | 11W – 16W |
| Est. Barebone Cost | $490 - $680 |
Native 1080p AAA gaming, external eGPU docking, Ollama local 7B-13B LLM inference.
| Graphics (iGPU) | Intel UHD 32 EU |
| Memory Architecture | 1x SODIMM DDR5 4800MHz |
| Storage Exp. | Up to 4x M.2 NVMe + 2x SATA |
| Idle Power | 9W – 15W |
| Est. Barebone Cost | $220 - $310 |
High-bandwidth TrueNAS SCALE box, multi-tenant router, localized NVR security server.
| Graphics (iGPU) | Radeon 890M (16 CUs) |
| Memory Architecture | LPDDR5X 7500MT/s (Soldered 32/64GB) |
| Storage Exp. | Dual M.2 PCIe 4.0 x4 |
| Idle Power | 12W – 19W |
| Est. Barebone Cost | $790 - $1,050 |
Ultra-fast local model fine-tuning, 1440p gaming, intensive creative studio workflow.
| Graphics (iGPU) | Intel Arc Graphics (8 Xe-cores) |
| Memory Architecture | Dual DDR5 5600 SODIMM |
| Storage Exp. | 2x M.2 PCIe 4.0 |
| Idle Power | 11W – 17W |
| Est. Barebone Cost | $520 - $720 |
Intel QuickSync 8K AV1 transcoding, media engineering, desktop virtualization.
| Graphics (iGPU) | Radeon 890M (16 CUs, up to 3.1 GHz) |
| Memory Architecture | DDR5-5600 SODIMM or LPDDR5X (Up to 128GB) |
| Storage Exp. | 2–3x M.2 PCIe 4.0 x4 (chassis dependent) |
| Idle Power | 6W – 10W |
| Est. Barebone Cost | $720 - $1,400 |
Local LLM inference, 1080p–1440p gaming with upscaling, software builds and creative workloads in a compact desktop.
| Graphics (iGPU) | Radeon 8060S (40 CUs, up to 2.9 GHz) |
| Memory Architecture | LPDDR5X-8000 256-bit, soldered (64GB or 128GB) |
| Storage Exp. | 2x M.2 PCIe 4.0 x4 |
| Idle Power | 10W – 18W |
| Est. Barebone Cost | $1,500 - $2,800 |
Local LLM inference on 30B–120B models, ROCm/AI development, 1440p gaming without a discrete GPU, heavy multi-core builds.
| Graphics (iGPU) | Intel Arc B390 (12 Xe3-cores) |
| Memory Architecture | LPDDR5X-9600 soldered (X-series) or DDR5-7200 SODIMM |
| Storage Exp. | 2x M.2 PCIe 4.0 / 5.0 (chassis dependent) |
| Idle Power | 5W – 10W |
| Est. Barebone Cost | $850 - $1,600 |
Quick Sync media servers and editing, efficient always-on workstations, 1080p gaming on the iGPU, on-device AI with OpenVINO.
| Spec | Intel N100 / N305 Micro Node | Ryzen 7 7735HS / 5800H Mini | Ryzen 7 8845HS / 7840HS Beast | Core i3-N305 Quad-2.5G NAS | Strix Point Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 | Intel Core Ultra 7 155H / Meteor Lake | Gorgon Point Ryzen AI 9 HX 470 | Strix Halo Ryzen AI Max+ 395 | Intel Panther Lake Core Ultra X9 388H / X7 358H |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Processor | Intel Processor N100 (4C/4T, up to 3.4GHz) | AMD Zen 3+ 8-Core / 16-Thread | AMD Zen 4 Hawk Point (8C/16T, 5.1GHz) | Intel 8-Core N305 (32EU Graphics) | AMD Zen 5 (12C/24T, 50 TOPS NPU) | 16 Cores (6P + 8E + 2 LPE) | AMD Zen 5 (12C/24T, 55 TOPS NPU) | AMD Zen 5 (16C/32T, 50 TOPS NPU) | 16 Cores (4P + 8E + 4 LPE, 50 TOPS NPU) |
| Graphics | Intel UHD (24 EU) | Radeon 680M (RDNA 2) | Radeon 780M (12 CUs RDNA 3) | Intel UHD 32 EU | Radeon 890M (16 CUs) | Intel Arc Graphics (8 Xe-cores) | Radeon 890M (16 CUs, up to 3.1 GHz) | Radeon 8060S (40 CUs, up to 2.9 GHz) | Intel Arc B390 (12 Xe3-cores) |
| Memory | 1x DDR4/DDR5 SODIMM (Up to 32GB) | Dual-Channel DDR5 (Up to 64GB) | Dual DDR5 5600MHz SODIMM | 1x SODIMM DDR5 4800MHz | LPDDR5X 7500MT/s (Soldered 32/64GB) | Dual DDR5 5600 SODIMM | DDR5-5600 SODIMM or LPDDR5X (Up to 128GB) | LPDDR5X-8000 256-bit, soldered (64GB or 128GB) | LPDDR5X-9600 soldered (X-series) or DDR5-7200 SODIMM |
| Storage | 1x M.2 NVMe + 1x 2.5" SATA | 2x M.2 2280 PCIe 4.0 NVMe | 2x PCIe 4.0 NVMe (Raid 0/1 support) | Up to 4x M.2 NVMe + 2x SATA | Dual M.2 PCIe 4.0 x4 | 2x M.2 PCIe 4.0 | 2–3x M.2 PCIe 4.0 x4 (chassis dependent) | 2x M.2 PCIe 4.0 x4 | 2x M.2 PCIe 4.0 / 5.0 (chassis dependent) |
| Idle Power | 5W – 8W | 10W – 14W | 11W – 16W | 9W – 15W | 12W – 19W | 11W – 17W | 6W – 10W | 10W – 18W | 5W – 10W |
| Est. Price | $120 - $180 | $310 - $420 | $490 - $680 | $220 - $310 | $790 - $1,050 | $520 - $720 | $720 - $1,400 | $1,500 - $2,800 | $850 - $1,600 |
| Key I/O | Dual 2.5GbE Intel i226-V · HDMI 2.0 · USB 3.2 | USB4 40Gbps · 2.5GbE LAN · Dual HDMI 2.1 | OCuLink 64Gbps · Full USB4 · Dual 2.5GbE | 4x 2.5GbE Intel i226-V · USB-C · DisplayPort | Dual USB4 40Gbps · OCuLink · 2.5GbE | Thunderbolt 4 · Dual 2.5GbE · WiFi 7 | Dual USB4 40Gbps · OCuLink · Dual 2.5GbE | Dual USB4 40Gbps · 5GbE / 10GbE · PCIe x4 slot (select models) | Thunderbolt 4 / 5 · Dual 2.5GbE · WiFi 7 |